


Run To You

by playtherain (orphan_account)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Doomed Timeline, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-06
Updated: 2014-10-06
Packaged: 2018-02-20 03:16:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,032
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2412935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/playtherain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kanaya doesn't come back as a rainbow drinker.</p><p>She doesn't come back at all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run To You

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a song of the same name - specifically, the cover of it by Pentatonix:  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp7PS_UN8Lo
> 
> Please listen to it as you read for the best experience.

 

> _A light in the room  
> _ _It was you who was standing there  
> _ _Tried it was true  
> _ _As your glance met my stare_

It had never occured to you that someone would kill Kanaya.

She was so constant, the concrete-and-steel wall at your back, never doubting. Never judging. Kanaya never hated you, and nobody ever hated Kanaya, not really.  
It didn't even occur to you to yell for her to take cover, but by the time it did, the hole was already there. She teetered on her feet for a moment, and her chainsaw fell to the ground with a loud crunch. Then she simply crumpled like a dead leaf, the weight leaving her body. Eridan was gone before you had processed that Kanaya was hurt. 

> _ But your heart drifted off _  
> _Like the land split by sea_  
>  _I tried to go, to follow_  
>  _To kneel down at your feet_

She has never looked so fragile to you. Her face is serene, and she's still breathing as you clutch at her hand and beg her to tell you it's not real. None of this can be real. Not Kanaya.  
"Please," you sob, and you see the corner of her mouth twitch up. 

> _I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you_

Her last breath is a sigh against your shoulder. You cry, and you forget to overanalyze it.

> _I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you_

You forget where you are and why you're covered in blood and why you're so, so scared, because all you care about is the still-warm girl in your arms, and you're trying so hard to will her back to life. You don't know how long you sit there, but when movement returns to your limbs she is warmed only by the strangled beating of your own heart.  
You are vaguely aware that the knees of your jeans are soaked through jade, and your arms are in a similar state. Her blood is beautiful, but you enjoyed seeing it dust her cheeks, enjoyed spotting the first flecks of colour in her tar-black eyes. Not spilling from her body and staining a great crater on the front of her shirt. Everything about her was beautiful and warm and bright, like a shooting star. You liken her to having now passed over the horizon, and your eyes are blind, blinking up at the invisible sky, the rain falling in your face.  
You make a box and put her in it and alchemize a ton of flowers to put in it too, and then you hide the whole thing away on the meteor where she might finally, for once, be able to rest peacefully.

> _I've been settling scores_  
>  _I've been fighting so long_  
>  _But I've lost your war_  
>  _And our kingdom is gone_

The inevitable showdown occurs without her there to stop it, as you know she would have been, without a doubt. Of course you'd go after the son of a bitch that killed her. You also know that she would know that, and she would try to stop you - were she not lying dead in a pool of her own blood on the cold lab floor. The thought pushes you on. You have only ever seen Kanaya angry one other time. Were things different, you think you could imagine her going after Eridan herself now, to avenge the lost matriorb. It was all the hope she had left.  
Except now, it is you killing Eridan with a very familiar strip of fabric from a red skirt tied around your wrist. There are tiny droplets of jade green on it and every time you see it out the corner of your eye, a new wave of rage shudders through your body. You feel as if a quadrant-mate has been murdered - and in a way, she has.

> _ How shall I win back _  
> _Your heart which was mine_  
>  _I have broken bones and tattered clothes_  
>  _I've run out of time_

Kanaya always had the right to your pale quadrant, and you to hers. You just never had the time.

> _ I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you  
>  I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you _

Gamzee runs off once he sees that Eridan is dead, and Vriska goes chasing after him.  
Eridan caught you once in the side of your chest, and grazed your head twice. You stagger on your feet, blood running down your leg and into your eyes, one hand holding closed the ragged hole in your sweater. You return to her body.   
Trolls don't really have funerals, only revenge, but you talk to her anyway, because fuck if you're just going to leave her there in silence. You say you killed Eridan and that it doesn't make you feel better because you don't know what to do now that she's gone. You tell her she was your best friend. And you tell her that you're sorry you couldn't save her. 

> _ I will break down the gates of heaven _  
> _A thousand angels stand waiting for me,_  
>  _ Oh, take my heart and I'll lay down my weapons  
>  Break my shackles to set me free_

She's so beautiful. If you squint, she appears to be sleeping. You collapse before her, reaching for her hand.

"I'm here," you say quietly, as your vision swims, and the lights above you begin to dim.  
"I'll be here, ok? Promise."

> _ I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you  
> _

* * *

What feels like a lifetime later, you find her. She's sitting so innocently, on nothing, because all around you is nothing but white. Looking into the distance, as if she were calmly regarding the words in a storybook.

You call out to her, scared that she won't see you in time, that she'll be taken away from you again before you can tell her anything.  
But she hears you. And she sees you, you know she does, because she turns her white gaze on you and her face lights up.

When you start running towards her, she stands up, and as you wrap her in a hug she throws her arms around your neck.  
She's laughing.

> _ I'll run, I'll run, I'll run, run to you_


End file.
